More Amazon phone rumors? Sure, why not ...

It's been a little while since we've heard anything about the mythical Amazon smartphone, so tonight's as good as any. Bloomberg's reporting that unnamed people are saying that Chinese manufacturer Foxconn is working with Amazon on a smartphone. In addition, Amazon's picking up patents that would help it "defend against allegations of infringement." Cool. Bloomberg's post doesn't mention that the phone would run Android, but it's hardly outside the realm of possibility, given that Amazon's already been plenty successful with its Android-based Kindle Fire tablet.

Missing, however, is any talk of carriers. It's possible any Amazon smartphone could be sold unlocked, meaning it could work on GSM networks in the U.S. (that'd be AT&T and T-Mobile) as well as worldwide, but that also presents problems in that both carriers are transitioning to LTE for 4G data -- AT&T's already there, and T-Mobile ramps up in 2013. But let's not put the cart that far before the horse just yet.